Greetings anglers. Independence Day weekend is upon us and as we get together to celebrate our nation’s great heritage and freedoms, please remember – and pray for – our military men and women fighting for our way of life.

There are boats of every kind rolling into our county this week as folks come to enjoy all that our magnificent lake has to offer. The fishing is darn good (as good as it has been this year, in fact) and the water looks great. We’ve got a bit of wind forecast for the weekend and the weather is supposed to be a bit cooler than it has been.

Bass anglers are fishing a wide variety of artificial baits – buzz baits in white, spinner baits in white or chartreuse, jigs with trailers, Beavers, Senkos, Brush Hogs … the list goes on. This is the kind of fishing that allows one to stick with their favorite technique or try that new technique you’ve been itchin’ to try.

Most reports have anglers catching 30 to 60 fish a day depending on how many hours you’re out on the water, and how hard you want to fish. Live bait anglers have been frustrated at the lack of availability of the larger sizes of minnows. Simply put, there are none to be had. Nearly all of our bait fish come from the big farms in Arkansas. They’ve been out of ‘em now for a couple weeks so there aren’t any coming into the hatcheries in California. Many of our anglers who enjoy using live minnows have gone to using the “medium” or crappie sized minnows and are having good success. (These minnows actually “match the hatch” pretty while at this point in time.)

Crappie anglers are enjoying catching a few crappie here and there. Some are reporting up to 15 per outing. Others are catching only two or three. The key to the crappie fishing right now is having a boat and enough motivation to check known locations throughout the day to locate the schools. Deeper water (18 to 25 feet) has accounted for most of the crappie lately. The Boat Works and Four Poles have both held crappie this week. Medium minnows or the ever-popular Panfish Assassin lures are tops.

Catfish are eating … everything. We’re in that time of year when the bass guys are having fits because they're catching catfish on their highly specialized bassin’ gear. Have you ever seen what a 14-pound catfish does to a spinner bait? Yikes! It’s ugly. Shrimp, mackerel and anchovies, night crawlers, clams and livers, mice and rats – all are prime targets for the predatory catfish. (Keep your Chihuahua away from the water …)

Saturday will see the 41st annual International Worm Races immediately following the Redbud Parade. Come join the fun, watch the parade, buy your highly trained race worm and test you luck in the races. (Pay no attention to the Worm Doping Scandal in the papers last week. Our crawlers are steroid free!) The parade will start at Redbud Park and end at Austin Park here in the city of Clearlake on Saturday morning. The worm races will begin at noon and run until about 3 p.m. There are also concessions and a carnival for a full day of family fun at the lake. Hope to see you ther e… (You guessed it, I’ll be at the worm races with the race worms.)

Bob Rider owns Lakeshore Bait & Tackle in Clearlake. Visit his Web site at www.994fish.com or call him at 994-FISH (3474).

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